Rezension: Eugen Ehrlich, Die Aufgaben der Sozialpolitik im österreichischen Osten, insbesondere in der Bukowina

Emil Lederer’s 1910 review of Eugen Ehrlich’s Die Aufgaben der Sozialpolitik im österreichischen Osten, insbesondere in der Bukowina reports a regional argument for social policy. Reviewing the lecture’s second edition, Lederer follows its two-part focus on the peasant and Jewish populations. Bukovina’s conditions, Ehrlich argues, demand remedies different from those of western Europe.

Daher seien alle Mittel westlicher Agrarpolitik, insbesondere Zölle, wirkungslos, da die Bauern ohnedies fast nichts verkaufen könnten.

English translation: Hence, he holds, all the means of Western agrarian policy, tariffs in particular, are without effect, since the peasants can in any case sell almost nothing.

The objection to tariffs rests on peasants’ minimal marketable surplus and lack of opportunities to earn outside their holdings. Cooperative organization, with Denmark as the example, promises improvement where price protection cannot.

Die jüdische Bevölkerung (10% der Einwohnerschaft) leide daran, daß ihr bisher keine entsprechenden Berufe erschlossen wurden, in denen sie sich betätigen könnte.

English translation: The Jewish population (10% of the inhabitants), he holds, suffers from the fact that until now no suitable occupations have been opened up to it in which it might be active.

Here the diagnosis shifts to restricted occupational opportunities. Ehrlich recommends industrialization, citing Jewish workers from Russia and Poland in London and North America as evidence of industrial aptitude. Lederer offers no explicit critical verdict; his compressed account highlights the lecture’s central move from imported policy instruments toward remedies grounded in regional livelihoods and access to work.